The top of tendentious television stations in the electoral campaign for the local elections is led by NTV Moldova and Accent TV, followed by RTR Moldova, Publika TV and Prime. The first three stations show Ion Ceban in an exclusively positive context, while practically neglecting all the other candidates. Publika TV and Prime negatively cover Andrei Nastase. The most impartial televisions are Pro TV, TV8, Moldova 1, Jurnal TV and TVR Moldova. These results were presented by the WatchDog.MD community in the second monitoring report on how the Chișinău mayoral election campaign is covered.
In an IPN press conference, Rodica Pîrgari, co-author of the report, said that Andrei Năstase was the target of more negative news than all the other candidates combined. "This is evidenced by the large number of negative news from Vlad Plahotniuc's media holding company stations: Prime and Publika TV", said Rodica Pîrgari.
The report uncovered interesting facts about the PSRM candidate. Though, between September 9 and 22, Prime TV and Publika TV stations targeted Ion Ceban with negative coverage, the intensity of the attacks diminished over the course of the last two weeks. "Over the monitoring period of the second report, the NTV Moldova, Accent TV and RTR Moldova stations have largely covered Ion Ceban in a positive light", said Rodica Pîrgari.
Valeriu Pașa, WatchDog.MD expert, pointed out that after Ceban and Năstase, Dorin Chirtoacă, Ruslan Codreanu and Victor Chironda were the most covered candidates. Among the least publicized candidates are Serghei Toma, Vitalie Marinuța and Andrei Donică. Valeriu Pașa theorized that, most likely, Prime TV has avoided to denigrate Ion Ceban over the course of the last two weeks, due to being monitored by the Audiovisual Council.
The WatchDog.MD expert added that the quantity of balanced news has decreased at Jurnal TV, RTR Moldova, Publika TV and NTV Moldova. "Jurnal TV has turned into a platform that allows candidates to present their own perspective on reality, without stimulating the critical thinking of the viewers", pointed out Valeriu Pașa. He said that it is worrying that the vast majority of TV stations have not complied with the legal framework regarding opinion polls.
Valeriu Pașa qualifies the coverage violations committed by broadcasters as "very grave" and claims that they tend to seriously influence the citizens' voting choice. The expert submitted a notification to the Audiovisual Council.
The monitoring report of the Chișinău mayoral election campaign was made based on the analysis of news bulletins from ten TV stations, between September 23 and October 6, 2019.
